Church Steeple collapse, New London CT 11

[Sym P. le]

Figure 12 stair location is off the exterior balcony. The bare stone surrounding the door as opposed to plaster interior finish confirms this.

Off center openings? It's difficult to say with certainty. In the side towers, it's not a big issue but if the center tower was improperly laid out, the problems compound down to the ground floor. Is it possible that the north portion of the tower shifted without showing any indication on exterior work? Perhaps the interior wythes shifted initially but not the exterior stone work. During some live footage of the side tower demolition, interior clay brick work was visible but I could not see the extent of it. I believe "... steel tie rods to prevent the walls from parting." is reference to interlocking the interior and exterior wythes. If loads shifted and were not corrected prior to this remedial work, this is just a 175 year latency.

Heavy interior finish, furring/lath plaster, could hide indications of further masonry failure in the lowest levels of the north portion of tower support.

Structural steel collar visible in the rubble of the center tower.

 

[GPR_Tech]

I took a few photos of a similar church in New London Ct and I was amazed at what I saw.

 

[Jeff Ostroff]

Dang that is incredible, and nice shots too by the way.

What church is this?

those cracks are so bad they look like weeping holes!

 

[3DDave]

Time to get the shipping wrap to hold the loose stones together and make the cleanup more straightforward.

 

[JAE]

Time to notify the owners that they have a problem (public safety and welfare).

Suggest....strongly suggest, they hire an engineer to review if they haven't already, after pointing out the similar New London "adventure".

 

[GPR_Tech]

Miracle Temple Church
(Aka former 2nd Congregation Church)

https://maps.app.goo.gl/rKpAWEqNqEmguqxk7?g_st=ic

 

[Murph 9000]

Looking at this view, it looks to me that there's a possible problem with the rainwater drainage in the last few years. The most recent image has a very dark/damp stain running down where the tower connects to the front of the church. There's not really enough images over time to be certain, but that's what it says to my non-expert eye.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/VuyA21BnppFFcFJXA

 

[Sym P. le]

!

Google Maps

 

[stevenal]

Handy man's secret weapon. Remember: If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

 

[bones206]

If only churches had a way to collect donations to pay for maintenance…

 

[Jeff Ostroff]

Bones206, this is done all the time, collecting donations for maintenance. First it should be built into the general budget, but often times they will setup a building fund for people to donate into for example to purchase new AC, to repair a roof, to remodel worn down bathrooms, replace front doors, etc. Our church has done all these over the years.

 

[GPR_Tech]

Some of these historic old churches in New England, do not have the membership to even support heating the building let alone the hundreds of thousands of dollars that they actually need in maintenance…. (Not all, but some) I know of a few with under 30 members trying just to keep the lights on.

 

[3DDave]

There are large numbers of failing churches and overall membership in churches is dropping. Couple that with the loss of population and standard of living/disposable income in many formerly well populated and prosperous areas, old buildings there don't stand a chance.

One thing that areas that saw rapid growth, such as the towns around steel mills or auto manufacture, never seem to do is plan for contraction - to plan how to reduce the footprint of the town to match the decreasing income and population. Instead, any excess was spent long ago to buy votes and reward campaign contributors. There should be demolition funds set aside, relocation funds to shut down parts of cities to concentrate remaining populace so that services aren't spread thin. No doubt such funds would be spent as the needs of "now" always outweigh the needs of "later."

 

[ALK2415]

they should sub-commercialize these institutions where young people could study to gather for social events, through social media they could attract younger people from which a steady fund could allocated for such renovations. Two birds by one stone !

 

[bones206]

I apologize for my earlier insensitive comment. Having grown up going to church and watching humble folk put a significant percentage of their income into the collection basket every Sunday, I guess I have an overly jaded and cynical viewpoint. Especially now that a lot of those same people are now old and struggling without savings for retirement.